10/13/20101Hardware Matters – Multiplatform Game DevelopmentBrian ApgarBrian ApgarTechnical DirectorBuzz Monkey SoftwareGame Development Is Hard!z Technically difficultz Schedule pressure & team conflictsz But... it's challenging workIt' tizIt's creativez It's always changingz And it uses more CS than any other discipline I've come across...Aside #1 – Relevant CSz Obviously graphics & AIz Data structures & algorithmsz Computer architectureCompilerszCompilersz Operating Systemsz Multithreadingz Networkingz Even databases!How Do I Get In?z What do I look for in entry-level candidates?z Solid CS background z Solid C++ knowledgeP bl l i bilit d i k l izProblem solving ability, and quick learningz Working with a team in a meaningful way− Communications with non-engineersz Passion for gamesPassion For Games?z How do you judge THAT?z Not just “I play games a LOT”z Demo is great (obviously) AfiidltizAwareness of issues in game development is good, too (although harder to see) z That's what we're talking about today...Aside #2 – How The Industry WorksPublisherConsole ManufacturerRetailerWAL-MARTSonyNintendoEAMicrosoftESRBDeveloperLicense HolderNintendoMicrosoftActivisionUniversalWarner Bros.SonyUniversalEAMicrosoftBuzz Monkey10/13/20102Aside #3 – Critical Issuesz Performance!z Feature creep based on competitionz Memory footprintLdtizLoad timesz Performance!Back To The Technical Side...z So you're working on a game, and the publisher says it has to be multi-platform...z Why would they do that?zWhat does that mean to an engineer?zWhat does that mean to an engineer?How Do Platforms Differ?z High-end versus low-end PCs− Dramatic differences in CPU, GPU, memoryz PC versus consolesConsole differenceszConsole differencesz Bigger differences− Multi-core− Shadersz Input systems (keyboard/mouse, controller, Wiimote, Kinect, PSMove, etc)Lowest Common Denominatorz Approach generally doesn't work.− People with high-end hardware want to take advantage of it...z Enabling features based on hardwareg− Common in PC gamesz Means that the code support needs to be present at all times.z What about consoles?More Low-Level Hardware Differencesz Cache. Both d-cache and i-cache.− High-end PC has 2-8MB L2 cache.− PS2 has 16kB data & 8kB instruction− PS3 has 32kB data & 32kB instruction (PPU)()z Bus bandwidth− Bus contention becomes a big deal as resources become biggerz Fill-rateWhat Can We Do About It?z Different content per-platform− Business issue− Development time−Team sizesTeam sizesz Tool pipeline to massage data into platform-specific formatsz Algorithms that can scale − AI?− Physics?z Performance / memory tradeoffs10/13/20103What We Can Do, Part 2z Abstraction layers− Performance issues?z C++ versus C code− Performance issues?z Data planes− Effect on cache− Effect on code & maintenanceConclusion, Sort Of...z Design code for flexibility and performance at all levels.z Yes, that's really hard.Any questions, about this, or game development in
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